Friday, 29 January 2016

As you may have read in my last post [link here] I have finished my first semester of my 2nd year of Fashion Design at WSA. We had a total of 4 different projects, 3 of them were practical coursework, and one was a written assessment. Two of these projects involved designing collections and making outfits from the designs, so like I did with my first ever semester of Fashion Design, I thought I'd share with you the final photos of the outfits I created from each of the projects, and give a little explanation of what the projects are about. I'm partly doing this because I find learning about people's courses really interesting, but also because when I was looking to learn more about fashion courses when applying for uni, there was nothing out there, so I want to give students a place to go for finding out about how fashion design courses work. So please, if you have any questions, leave them in the comments section and I will always try my best to answer them!

| METAMORPHOSIS |

This project was all about embellishing fabrics to really make the garments individual, so that the materials you use have really been developed into something you've developed yourself. This meant there was a lot of sample work as well as development of designs for creating the final collection. The inspiration for designs and samples had to be based on a sense- I chose to focus my project on touch, specifically looking at nerves, nerve cells, finger prints, and the actual skin. From this I explored many fabric embellishing techniques like applique, embroidery, fraying and layering, all of which are somehow featured within my 6-outfit line-up. The final outfit I made were a relatively minimal/simplistic design, but the 2 fabric manipulation layering techniques I used on each of them were what brought the design to life and made it unique. As you can see in the final photos below, the layering on the top involves a lot of fraying, and oh my word fraying those individual squares took absolutely ages! I'm not kidding when I say that fraying squares for the front and back took a whole day- it's so fiddly! I love the outcome though, so it was definitely worth it! I also absolutely love the fabrics I used for these garments, I wanted to make the fabrics tactile as well as the actual embellishments, so I used beautiful chiffon, velvet, and satin fabrics.

[Model: Charlotte James (instagram)]

| REMAKE/REDESIGN |

This project was kind of two projects in one brief, and they were treated as two parts during semester 1. The first few weeks of the project focused on Remake- this involved choosing a sufficiently complex existing designer menswear outfit and attempting to remake it ourselves. This meant working on patterns, learning new construction techniques and perfecting small details, which gave us all a real challenge, and allowed us to learn a lot of new skills to take forward into future projects. It also meant learning to work a bit more independently on the pattern work and construction, something which we all struggled with at first, but has been very rewarding in hind-sight. For my remake project, I chose an outfit from Thom Browne's SS14 collection, and I feel I've managed to replicate it well. Part two of this brief was 'redesign' which involved us putting a new spin on the remake garment we chose. We could do this many ways, however, I decided to take specific design details from Thom Browne's designs in the SS14 collection, and combine them on a more contemporary design. I wanted to do this because his collection was directly related to old-fashioned military-wear, and also had quite an effeminate twist on it, so I wanted to create something more modern, so designed a shirt that was long, loose fitting and very casual. I also altered the shorts design from something very exagerated in shape and almost costume, to a design more slick and modern. I actually really love my redesign outfit, especially the shorts which include some wonderful pockets which unfortunately aren't shown in these photos.

[Model: Sam Beckwith-Cole]

I really hope you found this post both interesting and informative, and as I said previously, if you have any questions about a Fashion Design course, please ask them in the comments - I always reply to all comments, and am more than happy to answer any Q's you may have! Additionally, if you are interested in keeping up with the work I do during term time, the best way to do this is to follow me on my instagram [@ashcam96] where I post many updates on each project I do! Thanks for reading!

Tuesday, 26 January 2016

So, as you may have noticed from my absence on my blog over Christmas, December/January was extremely busy and extremely stressful for me. For those who don't know, I am a Fashion Design student at WSA, and so over Christmas, whilst most people were relaxing and having a rest over the holidays, I was working on my projects from semester 1 everyday other than Christmas day. This continued until my semester 1 hand-in on 8th January, when I had finally finished my work and was able to pile it all up in the studio and leave it. After this hand-in date, we then had 2 weeks off whilst our work was assessed by our tutors, and I decided to go back home again to spend more time with my family.
Fashion Design courses are definitely not for everyone, you have to be able to handle the intensity of the work, it is very full on and you have to be sure it's what you want to do, and be dedicated to the work- us fashion students don't get much of a social life! However, after deadline (and after 2/3 weeks of really late nights and early mornings) I was drained of all energy, and so going home for the 2 weeks after hand-in meant that I could unwind and take time out from the stresses of uni life. During this time, I realised just how little time I get to myself, and how important it is to allow yourself breaks every once in a while. and spending time in the countryside where I live, was definitely the best place to be, and where I feel most relaxed. During term-time I always feel guilty whenever I'm not doing work, however, I've realised just how unhealthy an attitude that is, and I think this term, whilst the intensity is probably going to take a step up, I want to make sure that every now and then I allow myself time to switch off and not think about work. I think this is so important no matter what stage of life you are at. Whether your time-out is spending time with friends/family, travelling to new places, going on walks, exercising, shopping, or even, like me, just sitting down and reading a good book, just make sure you are allowing yourself time to 'switch off' and forget about all the stresses of work. I know that for me, this will give me a healthier and happier outlook on my projects at uni.

This post is a little different to what I usually post, however, it is something that is really important to me, and I believe is relevant to many of you. I hope that by sharing this with you all, that it can help you. Thank you for reading!

Monday, 18 January 2016

This is the make up and hair look I had for my last outfit post, BLACKOUT. I loved this grunge-y messy and dark style, and was originally a bit of an experiment, but turned into something I loved and can see myself wearing a lot.The hair was pretty simple to create: I washed it the previous morning, and the night before I french plaited my hair and slept on it [see this instagram post to see the french plaits I did]. Then in the morning, I untied my hair, and brushed it out completely to loosen the waves and make them look a bit more natural. Waves and curls in my hair fall out pretty fast, so brushing probably effected my hair more than it would for some of you, however, the more you brush it the looser it gets. I then used a tonne of VO5's 'Give Me Texture' Dry Texturing Spray, putting it all over my hair, rubbing it in and scrunching my hair up to give it natural looking volume. I then used my hairspray to help set the hair in place, and I was good to go!

With my make-up I wanted to try and create a grunge-style, everyday, dark eye look using a lot of black eyeliner. I had been inspired by make-up worn by Ashley Benson's Pretty Little Liars character Hanna Marin in one of the earlier seasons [during her dark phase for those who know the series] and so kept everything but the eyes looking quite natural and pale.To create the eyes I took a black pencil liner and lined along both the top and bottom lash line, and on the upper and bottom waterline. I then used a small eyeshadow brush and smudged the liner along the lash lines. Then, using the same small brush I used a charcoal/black eyeshadow shade and blended it into the smudged liner on my lid. After this, I used a grey shade and layered it on top of the black eyeshadow using a fluffy blending brush. The grey I used was actually quite light and shows up a lot in these photos, but I think a dark grey would look equally as effective on the lid. Using the same fluffy brush, I finished off the eyelid eyeshadow with a pale nude/pink shade and filled up the rest of my eyelid, blending it with the grey/black up to my outer crease. I then re-lined both waterlines using the black liner, and also took a blue pencil eyeliner and put that along the lower waterline to help bring out the blue of my eyes.

Hope you liked this look- let me know what you think and if you try it out!

Monday, 11 January 2016

This stuff is
actually amazing! I tried using it a few years ago when people in my year at
school began obsessing over it, but I didn't like it, and so I never bought it
again. However, I've recently begun washing my hair every other day in a bid to
help it grow and keep it healthy (due to dying and bleaching it so much!), and
decided to pick one up and give it another try, and I am now obsessed with it!
I feel like I must not have used it properly all those years ago because I
don't understand why I didn't get on with it! Many of you will probably already
of used and heard of Batiste's products, but I couldn't do this favourites post
without including it this month!

BLEACH LONDON SILVER
SHAMPOO

I have followed
Bleach London and used so many of their products over the past few years of
dying and bleaching my hair, illustrated in my hair post lastyear, and so I automatically bought their products when re-bleaching my hair
over the Christmas holidays. Like before, I used the bleaching kit and the
white toner, but I also bought their Silver Shampoo to help get rid of lasting
yellow/orange tones in the bleached hair, and this seriously is
a miracle worker! I've only used it a few times since
bleaching my hair, and it has done wonders for creating a beautiful ombre
blonde colour!

TROYE SIVAN -
BLUE NEIGHBOURHOODTHIS ALBUM OH MY WORD IT'S A BEAUTY! I'm sorry for unleashing my crazy
there, but seriously, Troye Sivan is a music genius, and has produced an
incredible album that I am just obsessed with. When I first listened to it I
was immediately drawn to 2 tracks in particular; WILD, and TALK ME DOWN, and
they were literally the only thing I listened to for about a week! Not even
joking! I have since listened to the rest of the album just as much, and it's safe
to say I am obsessed!

AND THEN THERE WERE NONEThis was another BBC series that aired over Christmas in the UK. It tells
the famous Agatha Christie murder mystery, and was done in 3-hour-long parts,
and featured many famous faces, like Aidan Turner, and Charles Dance. The
series was brilliant, it was so gripping and kept me wanting more after each
episode! I would definitely recommend watching this if you didn't catch it over
Christmas.

ADULT COLOURING BOOKSYes, I realise I am late in joining this bandwagon just like with dry
shampoo, but better late than never! And oh my word, if you still haven't got
one of these bad boys, then you really should get one. I really wasn't sure if
I'd find it as fun and therapeutic as everyone else seems to, but
after my stressful week with big uni deadlines I sat and got my colouring
book out, and it was just so relaxing! I was given 2 as Christmas gifts, one is
a Doctor Who one, and the other is called 'Secret Garden' and is created by
Johanna Basford. I love both, and know I will be getting a lot of use from them
next term when I need a break from the stresses of my uni work!

BBC SHERLOCKI have been obsessed with the BBC series of Sherlock since it started a few
years ago, but with the Christmas/New Year special having just been aired, I
have found myself re-watching all of the Sherlock episodes right from the
beginning, and so I had to place it in my favourites from last month. Also, the
'Abominable Bride' episode was just amazing- let me know what you thought if you
saw it!

KINGSMAN: THE SECRET SERVICE

I remember seeing
the trailer for this film when it was out in the cinema, and making a
mental note that I must see it at some point, and over Christmas I finally
fulfilled this want. The film is action packed, humorous, and directed so well,
with such an amazing cast to go along with it. Colin Firth is awesome in this
film, and just oozes cool! Definitely a must see!

I hope you enjoyed this post, and I'm hoping after this I'm going to get back
into my Monday & Friday posting routine. Sorry for the lack of posts over
the past couple of weeks, but with Christmas, New Year, and then the first big
deadline of my 2nd year Fashion Design degree being just last Friday, I found I
had no time to even think about writing blog posts. However, with all three of
those things out the way, I want to get back to posting, and have a long list
of blog post ideas I want to write! Hope you're all having a wonderful start to
2016, and I'd love to hear about anything that you were loving throughout
December, so drop me a comment below!